From Evan Nierman, writing for The Hill… Whether he is reporting news in cryptic sound bites on Twitter or speaking from a gloomy subterranean bunker or darkened streets, Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky continues to demonstrate the enormous impact of harnessing powerful messages and sharing them with the right tone and authority. In addition to his undeniable bona fide […]
From our colleagues at Lynn PR in the United Kingdom, written by Stefan Rollnik… President Putin is waging two wars which are mutually reinforcing. One with bombs and one with information. In seeking to pollute the information space with bad information, contradictory information and downright lies, Putin is blurring the lines of reality and making […]
By Maja Pawinska Sims, writing for PRokeMedia… Over the past two weeks, we have seen an unprecedented brand exodus from Russia. International brands that have been present in the country for many years have made the decision to pull out of their operations, as a direct consequence of president Putin’s own decision to invade Ukraine. […]
By Howard Fencl, Hennes Communications I was jolted back to the Stone Age by an attorney’s email on a thread batting back and forth a media statement I’d help craft in response to outrageous allegations in a frivolous lawsuit filed against our mutual client. The attorney’s reaction to the draft statement: “Litigators always advise ‘no […]
By Alexandra Reed Lajoux, writing for Directors & Boards… Corporations have the right to free speech. Should they exercise that right? Should corporations take public stances on social issues? Should they make contributions to political action committees or political parties? Under what circumstances do such actions create issues for corporations and their boards? These questions […]
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From Daniel Levin, writing in The Forward… Today marks the 20th anniversary of the death of Daniel Pearl, the American journalist who was kidnapped and then brutally murdered by terrorists in Pakistan on Feb. 1, 2002. Danny’s death affected me deeply — his abduction on the way to an arranged interview at a Karachi restaurant, […]
Maria Feeley, chief legal officer for Washington and Lee University, has seen her share of crises, at Washington & Lee as well as Rosemont College, the University of Hartford and Florida A&M, where she’s worked or served on boards. Think about whether you’d like to be faced with any of these: A social media firestorm […]
From Timothy Noah, writing for The Soapbox… We’ve seen much commentary about whether it was inappropriate for Joe Biden to mumble into a hot mic that Fox News’s Peter Doocy was a “stupid son of a bitch,” and not enough about whether Biden’s assessment was truthful. The first question is easily answered. No, presidents should not go […]
By Bruce Hennes, Hennes Communications If you’ve ever attended one of our seminars on crisis communications, we often talk about the power of apology. Real apologies; apologies that are authentic and true; apologies without qualification or the use of “weasel words” (e.g. “mistakes were made”). Perhaps no industry does apology better AND worse than the […]